


The Wolves' Interlude

by Nevcolleil



Series: The Instincts [3]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-08
Updated: 2017-06-08
Packaged: 2018-11-11 05:50:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11142225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nevcolleil/pseuds/Nevcolleil
Summary: "Our unsubs are team killers... Generally, killing teams consist of one dominant and one submissive partner. The dominant partner has the compulsion for violence that motivates their kills, and the submissive partner simply goes along with it or has been seduced into adopting a similar compulsion as his or her own."Josh Billings wrote: "It's not only the most difficult thing to know one's self, but the most inconvenient."





	The Wolves' Interlude

Spencer wouldn't say that it's an inconvenience to know what he knows - what his partnership with Aaron has taught him - but it does present an interesting challenge. 

Hiding their sexual relationship just comes naturally. No one in the BAU is overly forthcoming with the details of his personal life, and it's understood that, should two of them develop a romantic affiliation with each other, it would have to exist in secret, anti-fraternization policies making bringing a suspected affair to light a danger to the unity of the team. Also, Spencer's used to unsuccessfully hiding his feelings for his SAIC. He can pretend that he stiffens, when his and Aaron's bodies brush against one another briefly in a tight corridor, in unrequited desire rather than anticipation. He can pretend to blush, when Hotch's hand lingers on his shoulder, because he's imagining things that hand has never done, not remembering the taste of Aaron's fingers as as they held his mouth open that morning and Aaron thrust inside. If anyone sees through the ruse (and Spencer supposes they have. Rossi smirks just a little too knowingly after Spencer's spent an amount of time behind the closed door of Aaron's office; Morgan watches him, whenever he and Aaron come within touching distance of one another, just a little too closely) that isn't a problem. Spencer would rather their teammates, their friends, know that he's been bending over Aaron's desk on a regular basis, than something that could cause any one of them harm. 

Hiding the other thing is more of an acquired skill. Which Aaron says Spencer has been acquiring just fine.

It's hiding his true thoughts on both those things _at once_ that presents Spencer with a task during those cases in which matters of violence and sex overlap.

→ → → → →

"Our unsubs are team killers," Hotch says, on a job in North Dakota, to Spencer and the team and a room full of local deputies, "who have bonded over the need for, and enjoyment of, violence or who have a long-standing association with one another which would allow them to share intimate fantasies, such as of torturing and then killing another human being."

"In the latter case," Emily adds, "the unsubs are most likely related, by blood or by marriage. A father and daughter... siblings. Even a close pair of cousins."

"That said," Morgan tells them, "there is a sexual component to the unsubs' relationship so necessary to their dynamic that it manifests itself in almost all of their interactions."

"Our killers are related _and_ are having sex with each other?" one of the deputies asks, disgust plain in his face and his voice. 

"Most likely," Emily repeats, addressing the Bismarck officers with a soothing tone, noting their emotional responses to what the team is insinuating. "The fact that they seem to be taking one victim apiece, simultaneously, suggests a level of trust between the two that is most likely the result of years of familiarity."

" _How_ does it suggest that?" Sheriff Cramer asks.

"Generally, killing teams consist of one dominant and one submissive partner," Hotch answers. "The dominant partner has the compulsion for violence that motivates their kills, and the submissive partner simply goes along with it or has been seduced into adopting a similar compulsion as his or her own."

Spencer resists fidgeting with the file in his hands to continue, "Our dominant unsub trusts his submissive to capture victims and transport them to the kill site unsupervised. Judging by the level of organization we see these unsubs demonstrating, the dominant is an intensely controlling personality, so this trust will not have come quickly or easily."

"This tells us that the dominant believes he has complete control over his submissive," Hotch says. "He cannot conceive that the submissive might turn on him or risk punishment by failing at a given task."

"These two aren't equals," Morgan explains, raising his voice a bit to be heard over Spencer's quiet cough. Spencer accepts a bottle of water from Sheriff Cramer's receptionist, whispering his thanks, as Morgan says, "And they won't act like it. The submissive partner will defer to the dominant at all times. He might avoid direct eye contact or even walk a step behind when the two travel together. His natural inclination will be to allow the dominant to speak for him whenever possible."

"And he will not have a problem with this," Emily reveals. "Our unsubs believe the inequality between them to be justified or even necessary. One may be older than the other or more successful in some aspect of his life. One may be less physically or mentally capable than the other. Or there may be no discernable reason for the entitled and subserviant nature of their dispositions." 

"Why wouldn't the submissive partner have a problem with that?" another deputy asks.

"Because he's satisfied," Spencer says immediately. At the looks he gets, he clarifies: "In killing partnerships where the submissive is less invested in the killings than the dominant partner, the submissive will eventually begin to withdraw from the acts of violence perpetrated against the victims. In cases such as this one, where the submissive plays an active role in locating and capturing victims, he may even begin to make mistakes. He will "accidentally" attract the notice of a witness or even contact the authorities. This might be because the submissive partner feels guilt for what he and the dominant partner have been doing or because he no longer believes that his partner cares as much about him as he does the killings." 

"In essence," Hotch says, "he will have become jealous of the victims for the level of attention they attract from his partner." The deputies mutter amongst themselves. Hotch ignores their quiet chatter and gestures to the pictures pinned to the boards behind himself and his team. "We don't see that happening here. If anything, our unsubs are perfecting their method of isolating and transporting their victims. And wound patterns show an escalation of violence on both the part of the dominant and the submissive partner in each of the victims. The submissive unsub isn't becoming withdrawn from the violence of the killings. He's becoming more and more enamored with it." 

No one in the room misses the implications of that, and looking around, Spencer sees the worried frowns and nervous eyes to prove it.

A deputy in the back of the crowd raises her hand, and when Hotch nods at her she asks, "You said the dominant partner is the one motivating the killings... Could the escalation suggest that we're actually dealing with _two_ dominant partners instead of one dominant and one submissive?"

Each of them shake their heads, but Morgan is the one to respond to the question. "No. While it's not _unheard_ of for two dominant personality types to come together and kill, those relationships are rare and they don't last as long as this one. Also, we have no reason to believe that either of our unsubs has ever killed on his own, which is how most team killers start when they don't mind working in a pair but also don't need the power affirmation of a submissive partner to turn his fantasies of killing into a career."

"Okay, so our killers are a couple of whack jobs from the same twisted family tree, got it," says the first deputy to have spoken to them during the briefing, to the tittering and/or groans of some of his fellow officers. "That still doesn't tell us why you think they're a couple of gay, _incestuous_ whack jobs, now does it?"

Hotch shares an exasperated look with each of the members of his team and Sheriff Cramer glares at his deputy as if looks could kill and he has immunity.

"First of all," Emily does the good deed of fielding this one, "as we said earlier, since we're racing the clock here, we're releasing this profile now although we can't give you anything definitive about the gender and race of our unsubs. You should operate as though the unsubs could be a man and a woman, two women, or two men."

"We use the pronoun _he_ sort of androgynously," Spencer adds, "but while eighty-six percent of all serial killers is latently heterosexual, homosexual team killers do exist."

"And our unsubs are what we call sexual sadists," Hotch tells the room. "That means that they derive sexual gratification from the things that they are doing."

"You mean they kill to get themselves off?" Sheriff Cramer paraphrases, startled.

Hotch's eyes meet Spencer's for the briefest of moments.

"We mean they kill to get one another off," Spencer says. "We think they're escalating the torture involved in their killings as a sort of... gift. From one to the other and so on."

"And as long as they're together, these "gifts" are not going to stop."

**Author's Note:**

> This is a little different than the two previous parts. No, the unsubs in question are _not_ Hotch and Reid. But I got this scene into my head where Hotch and Reid discuss a relationship in some ways similar (in some ways different) to their own with the rest of the team present. Thus the entitling of this as an interlude. Please let me know how it comes off.


End file.
